Well, things are finally back up here after a 15-hour power outage, so
I can finally send out my report on the Cornell-Union game from
Saturday night:
--
Saturday, February 27, 1993.
Achilles Rink, Schenectady, NY
ECAC League Game
 
Cornell  1 0 2 - 3
Union    1 2 2 - 5
 
Scoring:
1st Period:
1) Cornell, Chartrand 7 (Scollan, Hannah) 6:17 (pp)
2) Union, Jayson Flowers 3 (Kukko, Jiampetti) 15:40
 
2nd Period:
3) Union, Cory Holbrough 3 (Keith Darby) 4:17
4) Union, Brad Kukko 5 (Jiampetti, Flowers) 11:59 (pp)
 
3rd Period:
5) Union, Chris Albert 6 (Kelley, Alaspa) 8:15
6) Union, Alex Vallee 2 (MacDonald, Keith Darby) 10:30
7) Cornell, Chartrand 8 (Scollan, Hannah) 14:20 (pp)
8) Cornell, Karam 2 (Doll, Bumstead) 15:13
 
Shots on Goal: Cornell 8-6-17--31, Union 7-11-13--31.
 
Power Play Opportunities: Cornell 2 of 6, Union 1 of 4.
 
Goalies: Cornell, Skazyk 0-7-0 (27 shots, 22 saves)
                  Bandurski (10:30 third, 4 shots, 4 saves)
         Union, Luigi Villa 3-11-0 (31 shots, 28 saves)
 
Attendance: 1966
 
Summary:
 
Union scored 5 consecutive goals to take a 5-1 lead, then held off
Cornell's late rally to take a 5-3 ECAC win at Achilles Rink.  The
win was the first for the Dutchmen since Jan. 9, snapping an
eleven-game losing streak.
 
The Dutchmen came out hitting hard and skating well in the first
period.  But with Scott Boyd in the box, Cornell scored the game's
first goal at 6:17.  Referee Pierre Belanger called two (in my
opinion) questionable penalties against Union to give Cornell
back-to-bak power plays with a short 5-on-3 advantage.  The Dutchmen
were able to kill off both power plays, and scored their first goal
soon after on Jayson Flowers' third of the year.
 
Union played their best period of hockey in a long time during the
second.  Cory Holbrough gave Union the lead for good at 4:17 when he
scored what Coach Delventhal called "probably the ugliest goal in the
history of college hockey."  Holbrough was out in front after a shot
by Keith Darby and a short rebound.  Cornell goalie Eddy Skazyk
couldn't cover, and the Cornell defense couldn't clear it, giving
Holbrough a chance to pound on it long enough to put it past Skazyk.
Then with Union on the power play, Brad Kukko gave Union a 2-goal
lead on a nice pass from Jeff Jiampetti.  Union outshot Cornell 11-6
during the period.
 
By the middle of the third period, Union had opened up a 5-1 lead on
goals from Chris Albert and Alex Vallee.  After Union's 5th goal,
Cornell called time out and replaced Skazyk with Chris Bandurski.  The
Big Red were not ready to give up quite yet.  They were getting plenty
of chances, and finally got back on the board at 14:20 on Chartrand's
second power play goal of the night.  Less than a minute later, Cornell
scored again to make it a 5-3 game.  They had plenty of chances to score
again, but a combination of some great goaltending by Luigi Villa and
some terrible shooting by the Big Red let Union come out with the win.
Villa was particularly outstanding during the third period stopping 2
clean breakaways and several more point blank shots.
 
Union is now 3-17 in the ECAC and 3-20 overall.  Cornell's hopes of
sneaking into the last playoff spot are fading away as they now stand at
4-15-1 in the league and 5-18-1 overall.  Union will finish the season
with games at Princeton and Yale next weekend.
 
There were several players for Union who played very well.  Of course,
Villa's 28 saves were very important in this one.  Jayson Flowers (1
goal, 1 assist), Brad Kukko (1 goal, 1 assist), and Jeff Jiampetti (2
assists) all played key roles in the offense.  Union also got goals from
it's 3rd and 4th lines with Cory Holbrough scoring for the 3rd line and
Alex Vallee scoring for the 4th.  4th line wing Kevin Darby assisted on
both of those goals.  Defenseman Reid Simonton was hitting everyone and
contributed some great individual efforts bringing the puck into the
zone.
 
Cornell, on the other hand, looked very shaky.  I can see why this team
is in 11th place.  Their passes were constantly being misplayed or
broken up by Union players.  When they did get the scoring opportunities
they often failed to get a good shot on Villa.  Like Union, they seem to
be missing the key players who can put the puck in the net consistently
when they have the chance to.  There were also times, especially in the
second period, when Cornell could not get the puck out of the defensive
zone for minutes at a time.
 
While this game snapped Union's 11 game losing streak, it extended
Cornell's to 10.  Union also broke an 0-for-27 power play streak with
Kukko's goal.  Cornell becomes the first team to lose twice to the
Dutchmen.  Union beat Cornell last February, 6-4, at Lynah Rink.  And
the win assures Union of a better league record (at least 3 wins) than
last year's 2-19-1.  I also wanted to mention that this year's Cornell
road crowd was much mich smaller than last year.  I think there were a
good 1000 (loud) Cornell fans at Achilles last January, but no more than
a few hundred relatively quiet fans this year.
 
--
Jim Teresco, Union College C.S. Department Graduate Assistant
Dept. of Computer Science, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12038
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